The Real Soldering Challenge!


Many silversmiths continue to teach that you must use multiple grades of solder, especially when doing complex pieces that require numerous solder joints. Do you really have to use more than one grade of solder?


Piece 1: The Base Plate


Make a heavy base plate with a lot of solder joints!
This will satisfy the skeptics that say
we must use the three grades of solder for complex multi-joint pieces,
especially if the pieces are soldered on to a heavy base plate.

I decided to use 14 gauge square wire soldered together to form a sheet
that most would consider a heavy base plate.

This base plate will consist of 46 pieces of 14 gauge square wire for a total of 47 solder joints.



Step 1
The Base Plate

I first cut 2 1/4 inch lengths of 14 gauge square wire. Next, I straightened
them and placed them on a charcoal block. I also decided to
include a piece of twisted wire made from two pieces of 18
gauge round wire. This should just add a small
punctuation to the piece!

Flux the silver pieces and place nice large pieces of hard solder on each end. Large pieces and lots of solder can be used, because we are using only hard solder. It will polish just like the sterling silver. It does not pit like easy and medium have a tendency to do. Hard solder is as hard as sterling and will not "undercut" as the softer easy and medium solder will. This is important because I want to put a high polish on the front and back of this base plate. With 46 square wires being used to make it, if easy solder was used it would begin to undercut, buff away, and leave a fine line between each wire piece.

From my experience, this is what happens. Anyone wishing to take this challenge using easy or medium solder would be most welcome!




Solder all of the pieces together in the same way. I am using nothing but hard solder on the whole project, so of course this is all hard sheet solder.




Part of my challenge to myself is that I want to use the $10.00 propane torch form Ace Hardware. This is the torch that I consider one of the worst torches to use for silversmithing, but I consider it to be the best torch to use to learn silversmithing. It is cheap enough for almost anyone to begin making jewelry, and you can make thousands of dollars worth of jewelry with it. I also believe they are one of the safest torches because of the small amount of gas and relative low pressure involved. Even though the small disposable tanks are about $3.00, they will last most silversmiths for at least 2 to 3 months. You could make hundreds of pieces of small jewelry, or a little less on larger pieces like this. However, I do not recommend them for larger pieces such as heavy buckles and bracelets. I recommend a Smith Acetylene/Air torch for larger pieces once students can afford to purchase them.




As you can see, I left some openings that I plan to inlay with stone just to help make this piece even more complex and experimental! I most likely should have spent more time straightening the wire pieces, but I only have a limited amount of time. I really don't have a set limit of time, just a goal to finish this piece as fast as possible with least amount of my time spent on a piece I have no intention of selling.





As the can see in the photo, I wanted the twisted wire filled in to make it look as though it was sculpted into the base.

This may prove to be a mistake. I will just have to see what happens to it as the piece gets polished. It will have a tendency to fill in completely.




Here, I just drew a circle to give me an idea of the eventual size of this piece. I did this while keeping in mind that I was going to dome this piece to make it even more difficult, complex and experimental.

A real test of hard solder!




Click here for The Solder Challenge Part 2